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| King Eward VII |
Recently I've been working on two commissions simultaneously, a coronation portrait of King Edward VII of England and Frans Hals's Laughing Cavalier. Both painting have been challenging in their own way. Edward VII's portrait is a full-length portrait and jam-packed with detail. For me the hardest part so far has been fitting all of the elements together into one cohesive picture. While the Laughing Cavalier has plenty of detail of its own, not in the background but in the embroidery on his clothing, the most difficult part in my opinion is capturing his jovial expression. The cavalier looks as if he is either fighting to suppress a laugh or he is so confident that he doesn't need to worry about smirking. Frans Hals was a master of catching the fleeting look, so if I am not able to likewise recreate this jolly fellow's elusive smile, the painting will have been in vain.
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| The Laughing Cavalier (my painting on the left) |
